IMO: Final AL Divisional Standings

Today's post is going to be super simple for each division and why I think these teams will finish as they do. AL East: 1- NY Yankees- 45-15 2- TB Rays 41-29 3- Toronto Blue Jays- 33-27 3- Boston RedSox- 33-27 5- Baltimore Orioles- 22-38 The Yankees are locked and LOADED. Health is the most significant contingency factor for the Bronx Bombers. In a 60 game season with the depth pieces in the OF in Clint Frazier and Aaron Hicks and with P Paxton and Tanaka healthy. The Yankees are one tough team to beat even without Judge and Stanton off the field. The Ray's strength is their pitching along with great depth around the diamond. With Meadows being out to start the season hurts, I still believe they can win games on pitching along. The Blue Jays are all upside in my eyes. With Biggio, Bichetta, Guerro Jr all pushing for top 10 best at their positions, with better pitching and Pearson taking steps toward being number 2 to Ryu. I have a hard time counting this team out of a lot of games—the RedSox without Betts, Sale, and moving into the future. I don't see this team being quite good enough to beat any of the above groups or even the NL East. The Orioles are very easy to predict with budding young talent out the ears, the team doesn't offer much to get behind to win games. AL Central- 1- Minnesota Twins 41-19 2 Clevland Indians- 38-22 3- White Sox 36-24 4- Detroit Tigers- 28-32 5- Kansas City Royals 20-40 The time is now for the Twins. The team his the most HR in the MLB they added Josh Donaldson during the offseason and boosted the rotation with Maeda. I have full confidence in this team to win a lot of games on the lineup and offense. Their pitching is excellent, and they returned a lot of their staff from the last season. The key for the Indians is consistency from the lineup as a whole and the rotation as well, with a few key players returning from injury, acquiring functional depth pieces in the off-season, and further developing young talent. The Indians are tricky, but they are still an excellent team all around. The White Sox are building towards something great. Eloy Jimenez, Luis Robert, and Luis Giolitto are the bright future of the White Sox. Free Agent additions of Grandal, Mazara, Encarnacion, and Kuechel are ready to win. The White Sox are a dark horse for a playoff push once they put it all together. The Tigers are my favorite team, with the MOST talent coming up and getting ready. With Fulmer, Mize, Manning, Skubal, Parades, Boyd all there to carry what looks to be a stud rotation. They have had the most exciting, athletic plays in the Out Field. I am so excited to see how Torkelson mixes in this season. I am so excited for the team to get some experience and watch out for this team next year. Lastly, The Royals are just as slightly less talented than the Tigers. They have tons of talent in the organization that is getting better. But with many veterans on the team who have inconsistent records with injuries and performance. I do look forward to seeing Asa Lacey on the field at some point this season. AL West- 1- LA Angels- 42-18 2- Houston Astros- 41-19 3- Oakland Athletics 40-20 4- Texas Rangers 32-28 5- Seattle Mariners 30-30 The AL West is the tightest division in baseball. With ridiculous talent between LA, Houston, and Oakland. The division itself will come down the last week of the season for seeding for the playoffs. I have all my belief that the Angels will overcome all obstacles to win this season. When you have the best player in all of baseball and finally gave him a supporting cast, that is a recipe for success. The Houston Astros will also have their fair amount of obstacles to overcome this season. I see them dealing with more and more injuries this season because they will consistently be getting hit. I am sure this will catch up with the teams throwing at them with fines and whatnot. The Astros are a deep and talented team, and that is what is going to help them stay in it for the season. The Oakland A's are just excellent. They have no apparent weakness with defense, offense, or pitching. They have good enough pitching, and a great offense and the best defense is baseball to me. With great coaching able to get the best out of players, players buying into the system will propel them even to win the West. The Oakland A's are my dark horse World Series champions. The Texas Rangers have improved pitching, but not an improved offense/ defense. They do have a new stadium that gets roasted on Twitter daily. I don't see this team being able to beat the rest of the AL West or NL West enough. The Seattle Mariners are so young and have so much talent coming up. They have just enough ability on the team to go.500 this season. The injury to Tom Murphy hurts the depth with Catching, and the injury to Julio Rodriquez also hurts the depth to the OF. The injury to Julio also puts a roadblock into his development. Coming up next: NL Final Predictions.